CityCats crews abandon strike

A CityCat strike planned for Friday morning has been cancelled by the unions representing CityCat crews and ferry skippers.

Transdev, the company that runs Brisbane's CityCats and ferries, received advice from the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union and the Australian Maritime Officers Union on Thursday that industrial action had been cancelled.

All CityCat, CityHopper and CityFerry services will run normal services on Friday.

"We wanted to give today's discussions every chance of a succssful outcome."

He said main "sticking point" in negotiations remained "certainty over rosters", where staff claim allowances for early and late shifts.

Earlier

CityCat crews will again strike for 24 hours from Friday morning as unions argue the company running the CityCats for Brisbane City Council is replacing permanent staff with casual staff.

The company, Transdev, insists this is incorrect and the core issue is the scale of the wage increase.

CityCat crews will strike again on Friday morning

CityCats will not operate from 4am Friday until 4am on Saturday, unsettling tens of thousands of CityCat passengers.

Transdev has the contract to run Brisbane City Council’s fleet of CityCats for the council.

Brisbane City Council asked commuters to take buses and not ferries and CityCats on Friday.

It is the third strike by CityCat crews against Transdev since December 2018 as the unions continue their 12-month struggle to renegotiate the enterprise bargaining agreement with the company.

Passengers are getting frustrated by the frequent strikes.

Hawthorne passenger Peter Molenkamp said he was told by a crew member as he left the CityCat on Wednesday they would strike on Friday.

“I use the CityCat everyday and this is about the fourth time this has happened,” Mr Molenkamp said.

He called on lord mayor Graham Quirk to question Transdev about their contract.

“I know it is between Transdev and their staff, but the lord mayor contracts that service to Transdev,” he said.

“He should be standing in and doing something.”

The major sticking point in the 18-month disagreement is wages.

The current agreement expired in May 2018.

Transdev originally offered a wage increase of 13.3 per cent for CityCat masters and between 8.3 per cent and 9.3 per cent over three years for other crew.

They recently increased to 19.7 per cent over three years for CityCat masters and between 8.3 per cent and 19.7 per cent for other CityCat crew.

The Maritime Workers Union was asking for wage increases of between 20 per cent and 30 per cent over three years.

The CityCat terminal at Sydney Street, New Farm.Credit:Tony Moore

Transdev’s Managing Director Tilly Loughborough said CityCat services will be runningat a reduced frequency on Friday, and are therefore expected to be busier than usual.

“The Unions’ decision to take further industrial action and unnecessarily impact ourcustomers is regrettable, particularly because our Enterprise Agreement negotiationshave been moving in the right direction with assistance from the Fair WorkCommission,” Ms Loughborough said.

“The core issue is that Transdev is being unreasonable and attacking the staff roster system,” Mr Carnegie said.

“They are manipulating the roster system to cut workers wages,” he said.

Mr Carnegie said Transdev was reducing the number of permanent staff and replacing them with casual staff.

“The company is trying to casualise the workforce as much as it can,” he said.

Mr Carnegie said the MWU estimated about 30 per cent of Transdev’s CityCat staff in Brisbane were employed on casual terms.

“We’ve got workers now who are earning less than they were four years ago,” he said.

“There’s a lot of them and quite substantially less.”

Mr Carnegie said the Maritime Workers Union was trying to have more staff employed as permanent part-time by Transdev.

CityCat crews took strike action on December 5 for 48 hours, then a further 24 hours on December 19.

In December, Transdev said the MWU pay request was “not sustainable.”

Transdev’s managing director Tilly Loughborough said all Brisbane ferry and CityCat crew were now paid “at or above” the national award rate.

She said Transdev had met more than 20 times with union enterprise bargaining staff to try to settle the issue.

The parties have spent five days before the Fair Work Commission since December to resolve the dispute.

Brisbane City Council said it was very disappointed the two unions - the Maritime Union of Australia and the Australian Maritime Officers Union - were taking protected action while the issue was still being discussed at the Fair Work Commission.

"This ongoing matter is entirely between Transdev and its employees," a council spokeswoman said.

"Commuters should consider other transport arrangements, including regular bus services which ordinarily service the ferry terminals."